Babson Capital Management LLC, a global investment manager with more than $142 billion under management and operations on four continents, announced it has created a new Energy Finance Group and hired four seasoned industry veterans with more than 90 years of experience financing power generation and related energy infrastructure projects.

The group will focus on mezzanine debt and equity investments in energy and infrastructure projects owned and operated by middle-market and smaller privately owned companies. The group will be based in New York and led by managing director Brian J. Daly, a former managing director and senior portfolio manager of the TCW Cogeneration and Infrastructure Fund.

“The Energy Finance Group complements Babson Capital’s existing expertise in middle-market mezzanine and private equity investing and extends our capabilities into a proven asset class with very attractive supply-demand characteristics and a track record of providing attractive, stable returns over a long-term investment horizon,” said Michael P. Hermsen, managing director and head of Babson Capital’s Global Private Finance Group. “Brian’s team possesses a unique combination of technical and financial expertise that has kept borrowers coming back over the years, and we are eager to put their talents to work on behalf of middle-market borrowers, sponsors and our investors.”

Joining Daly in the Energy Finance Group are former TCW colleagues William VanHerwarde and Brett Macune. The team, which will report to Hermsen, expects to announce the addition of a fourth investment professional soon.

“We are very excited to join the Babson Capital platform, which is well positioned to provide a stable source of capital in a relationship-oriented approach to the energy and infrastructure market,” Daly said. “We are looking forward to building a direct origination franchise within Babson Capital’s Global Private Finance Group, which has more than two decades of experience in the mezzanine and private equity markets.”